I didn't care much for sports when I was a kid.  My granddad would have the Cowboys game on every Sunday blaring in his living room at an absurd volume, but I never paid attention.  Danny White just didn't do it for me I guess.  And watching baseball games was exteremely boring to me.  I was a great outfielder, in little league, though.  That's what I gathered, because that's where the coach would always send me:  to the outfield.  Nothing much ever happened out there, and I thought it was because the 9-year-old batters were too afraid to send a zinger my way.  I thought of the parents talking in the stands, saying stuff like, "Look at old man De Leon's boy!  He's got that outfield covered!  He's on the ball like cold on ice, I tell you what!"

But then one day, when I was so confident that nothing would happen in the outfield, I carefully pulled the bag of Reeses Pieces from my pocket that I'd been saving to enjoy.  The movie E.T. was huge at the time, so kids were buying bags of Reese Pieces like they were looking for Willie Wonka's golden ticket.  So, there I was in the outfield, enjoying my Reeses Pieces with the sun on my face and not a care in the world, and then one of my teammates yelled, "Heads up, Dan!"  It was in that moment that my athletic abilities that I always assumed were top notch failed me, because no sooner did I look up with a mouthful of Reeses Pieces, and my glove at my side like a lead weight, than a baseball fell out of the sky and hit me dead center on the head.  I spent the rest of that game – and many more like it – in the dugout with an icepack on my head and a cup full of Gatorade in my hand to wash down my Reeses Pieces.

I kind of regret not paying more attention to sports when I was a kid, though, because I might have appreciated athletes like Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Joe Montana and Nolan Ryan.  Their careers are now only pages of sports history that I can witness retrospectively.  But I can say that I am grateful for witnessing one of the world's all-time greatest athletes in his prime, even though only on TV.  For years, I watched Michael Jordan.

It's just a matter of opinion, but I that that MJ is the greatest basketball player that every lived (and I'll gladly hear your opinions about this after the service).  Some of my friends had that unmistakable poster in their rooms of MJ flying through the air with his legs in an outstretched "Y" and his armed hoisted straight over his head, holding the basketball in his hands like I might hold a tennis ball.  There's a crowd of people behind him, watching this vertical miracle with their jaws on the floor, and the look on Michael Jordan's face is characterized by his eyes as wide as half dollars, and his tongue sticking out.  And that was just a poster.

MJ helped win 6 NBA titles for the Chicago Bulls, and along the way he inspired thousands, if not millions, of children to "be like Mike."  He was one of the best athletes I've ever witnessed, and that I'll probably ever witness in my life.

But why, why did he have to come out of retirement?  That almost ruined everything for me.  You remember when MJ came out retirement – again – and this time he was even longer in the tooth and playing for the Washington Wizards?  That was just painful to watch.  It was a new day for basketball, and MJ looked tired next to the Kobe Bryants and Carmello Anthonys of the game.  I was so thankful when he retired for the third and final time. 

The career of Michael Jordan might be an example of what Jesus is talking about in today's Gospel reading.  Jesus says, "Look, you don't pour new wine into old wineskins because the new wine will just be too much for the old wineskins.  They'll burst and you'll be left with new wine spilled and old wineskins destroyed.  So, learn from this.  Pour new wine into new wineskins so that both will be preserved."

Sounds about right.  When MJ came out of retirement for a second time, he tried to play with the new kids (there's your new wine).  But his skills had weakened with age and he wasn't the amazing, vertical MJ that he was before (there's your old wineskins).  And the result was that the Washington Wizards still weren't that great of a basketball team, and MJ soon decided to retire for good (there's the new wine being spilled, and the old wineskins breaking).

That analogy would fit perfectly, but there's a problem.  See, I don't think MJ returned to basketball just because he wanted to relive his glory days.  Michael Jordan returned to basketball because he wanted to help teach the new players the etiquette of the game.  He returned so that he could guide and teach his teammates, and so that he could show folks like Steven Jackson and Ron Artest that you're supposed to use your skills wisely on the court, not jump into the stands and take swings at trash-talking fans.

What I'm saying is that MJ may be a little older and a little slower physically, but he's wiser and more keenly aware of the new skills on the court that need attention and nurturing – the new wine that needs and appropriate, safe place to be contained.  He may be getting old, but MJ is definitely a new wineskin.  And there are still so many young basketball players out there – so much new wine – that want to be like Mike.

And this isn't just the case with basketball.  There are so many people in the world – so many people in our community – who are striving to be heard, to be included and to be nurtured for healthy, positive growth.  Just like young basketball players that want to get on the NBA and WNBA court, there are women, men, youth and children everywhere that see places in the world where their ideas and their skills and gifts can be put to healthy, positive use, and they're crying out, like Isaiah, "Send me!  Send me."  There is new wine flowing through Bryan/College Station that Jesus is talking about, and that new wine needs a new wineskin.  That new wine is saying, "Send me!"

The Scripture that Randal read is an incredible story about Isaiah.  I mean, that story's got it all:  the temple filled with smoke, seraphs flying around saying, 'holy, holy, holy,' so loud that the temple shakes, and most of all, a simple man gets to see the Lord Almighty.  It's an awesome story, but it's not over our heads.  This happened to Isaiah, but it's a story about what happens for you and me and our relationship with God.  Isaiah sees the glory of God and he say, "I'm not worthy of this!  I'm a sinful person, and I've said sinful things and hung out with sinful people."  And that's when one of the seraphs takes a hot coal and touches Isaiah's mouth with it and says, "You used to say sinful things, but now everything you say can be healthy and positive.  You're a new person.  It's OK."  And that new person, Isaiah, hears God say, "Whom shall I send to go out there and be a messenger for me?  Who's going to get out there and keep this good thing going?"  And Isaiah, someone just like you and me, looks up to the Lord and say, "I'm here!  Send me!  Send me."

Last week I talked about the healthy, positive effects some Sunday School teachers had on my life, and one of them was a woman.  Well, coincidentally enough, there was a story on CNN the very next day about a woman who'd been teaching Sunday School at a Baptist church in New York for 58 years, and she'd been forced to step down because this particular church had adopted a new stance where women weren't allowed to teach anymore.

She had to quit because, according to Scripture, women aren't supposed to teach men.  Sounds ridiculous, I know, but this is what that church was talking about.  1 Timothy 2:12 says, "I permit no woman to teach or have authority over men; she is to keep silent."  This, of course, comes from our friend St. Paul, good ol' Paul.  But Paul is always going from town to town writing inconsistent letters that are aimed at a specific cultural context in a particular time and setting, and Paul changes his story more than a "choose you own adventure" book.  You have to wonder what that church would say to the Scripture from Galatian 3:28 where Paul says, "There is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

There was a special on Nightline a few years ago about some churches' claims against women and homosexuality in the ministry.  And in the story, Ted Koppel is interviewing a black, male, Baptist pastor, and he says, "Jesus doesn't say anything against women or gays in the Bible, let alone their roles in ministry.  How do you reconcile that with St. Paul speaking against them in Scripture?"  The pastor leaned back in his chair, smiled and said, "Well, Paul ain't Jesus, is he?"  Amen, brother.  And I think this church and its two very gifted previous pastors, Jo Gayle Hudson and Karin Stork-Whitson, would say the same thing.

Just yesterday there was a story on the cover of the New York Times that explained how women have a much more difficult time than men becoming pastors of large congregations.  It said that women are bumping up against what they call "the stained glass ceiling."  For female clergy, the stained glass ceiling is described as "longstanding limits, preferences and prejudices within their denominations that keep them from leading bigger congregations and having the opportunity to shape the faith of more people."  But I think Jesus would describe the stained glass ceiling as an old wineskin.

I want to take that definition a little further.  I'd say that the stained glass ceiling of the Church is the old wineskin that refuses to hold the new wine in our world.  I'm not belittling what our sisters in Christ are going through at all, I'm just expanding on that definition for the sake of how we hear the Word of God in this place today.

The stained glass ceiling is an old wineskin that says that women can't teach men, that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters have no place in the church, let along the leadership of it, and that the Gospel message of Jesus has nothing to do with social justice.

In fact, when my wife interviewed for a job just after we moved to Bryan, the guy doing the interview found out that she was married to a minister of a progressive church that was devoted to Christ's message of equality, and he asked rhetorically, "Just what does Christianity have to do with social justice anyway?"

Those are the mutterings of the stained glass ceiling that prohibits the church from being the new wineskin that can hold the new wine flowing all around us.  Friends, it's time.  It's time to break through that stained glass ceiling.  And don't let our aesthetics fool you.  Just because we don't have a stained glass sanctuary doesn't mean we're immune from the stained glass ceiling.  It can happen to us when we don't listen for how God is still speaking in this church.  When we stop listening for God, there's no room for God to surprise us with new wine.

Reverend Dottie Escobedo-Frank is pastor of Crossroads United Methodist Church in Phoenix, and she says that at every church where she has served someone has said to her that they're leaving the church because she's a woman.  She say, "I speak differently than a man does.  To hear the fullness of God's voice, you need to hear both men and women.  People's ears are opened more because of the surprise, and they are delighted by surprise."  I'd say God is still speaking.

This portable building out here, this new playground, those are new wineskins.  We're not making new wine here.  We're not pressing grapes.  It's already here.  It's all over the place.  It is in our community.  It is at our places of work.  It is in the world.  We are called as the church to be a new wineskin.  That's it.

We might not be able to be like Mike, but like MJ, we can continue to be and become a new wineskin.  Friends Congregational Church can be a new wineskin in this community.  This church can strive to become a place where we hear the world saying, "Send me!" and our response would be, "Come on! Come home!"

It's time, Friends.  It's time for new beginnings.  Let's all take a huge gulp of God's new wine and pray that we might continue to be the wineskins that are healthy enough to preserve both.  "Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.  Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day.  Declare his glory among nations, his marvelous deeds among all people.  For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise."  And the people of God said, "Amen!"